About Last Night: Band of Outsiders Opens First Store

Designer Scott Sternberg celebrated his New York boutique with a star-studded crowd that included Jason Schwartzman, Jamie Bell and Max Minghella. He also brought his dog

Scott Sternberg may have canceled his New York Fashion Week show this season, but he's been busy working on another equally important project: his first U.S. retail store in NYC. On Saturday night, the designer celebrated his Soho boutique opening with a party that brought out a cool Hollywood crowd including Jason Schwartzman, Max Minghella, Jamie Bell, Jessica Joffe and celebrity stylist Brad Goreski.

Schwartzman, who stars in Band's latest Polaroid campaign, was immediately swarmed by partygoers when he arrived to support his designer pal. "We met because he was a big fan of Band. It was when we were really small, and we were just at Barneys and Opening Ceremony and mostly menswear," Sternberg told Pret-a-Reporter of how he became close friends with The Grand Budapest Hotel actor. "He was on a shoot with GQ with my friend Madeline Weeks and she called and said, 'You know, Jason Schwartzman is obsessed with your clothes and you guys have to meet.' And then two months later, we shot him in a look book."

While holding his new 7-month-old puppy, General Zod (who kept him company throughout the night), Sternberg said his new Soho shop "feels like the best challenge you could ever have. It's a platform for me to do whatever I want with it. It's great."

The store's modern layout — which features large trunks set on casters that tether and lock to each other to form a 35-foot-long display and storage unit in the center, with a canopy of road cases hanging overhead as a form of lighting — was designed by architectural design studio LOT-EK, the same firm that designed the L.A.-based brand's flagship store in Tokyo, which opened in October 2013.

"[I wanted] something that was super-modern but also totally warm and familiar. Something that was functional, modular and easy to shop in, where things could move around and look different in a week, month or a year," said the designer, who also mentioned that the giant mural against the back wall can easily be changed.

While he hopes to bring a brick-and-mortar to L.A. one day, he noted, "The focus right now is just to make this awesome every day, and keep it fresh and new. Once we figure out that cycle, L.A. would just be easy to slip right in." We can hardly wait for that day to come.